Hey, I added the photos from the last show up to the gallery. There’s shots of us, taken by my girl, and shots of System and Station, taken by me. Plus I have been customizing the gallery some too. You can’t leave comments on the photos yet (working on it!), but you can leave comments to the blog posts.

How’s it look?

Ok, so we were up at Reelsounds on Memorial Day doing more work to the SKWM song. We did some tracking at FinerFoods, but needed to dump the tape to digital and continue on.

First problems were that the first verse of vox ended up on the guitar track too - not too good. Then we realized the vox mic was creating a weird phasing with the cymbals. So we decided to ditch the gtr/vox tracks and start from there.

So, we began with my rhythm guitar using a sweet Strat (a gift from Pat Methany), a Vari-Drive (thanx, Lucas!) and a Super Reverb. There were 8 (count em - 8!) mics on this amp. Ridiculous, but we have the power. Then we moved to some keys. AJ played some clavinet and then moved to a Hammond with the Leslie Rotating Speaker. Then we plugged in Nate’s Les Paul through a Rat into a 4×12″ cab powered by a Fender Bassman. Blazing solos - take after take. Yet, nothing was feeling like ‘it’. Finally, at the end of my rope, desperate, I found something. Then we moved on to some ‘gang vocals’, my lead vox, and a back-up vox.

We mixed for a couple hours. Thom and I weren’t sure if we were there, but our ears had had enough. We gave up for the day and I left with something of a mix. I sent the mix over to AJ for some fresh ears the next day; he loads it up and gives it a listen and says it sounds like shit. Turns out, his software did a number on it and fucked it all up. He reloads it again and it sounds great.

Only problem, Bill’s guitar was unintentionally left out. Need to mix it into the mix.

I have finished adding what we had in the previous pvx photo gallery. It was a huge pain in the ass, but it was worth it. There were tons of photos in there (and are again) and it bothered me so much to not have them up anymore.

Besides the usual bounty of Century Rocket Building, Bearhawk, Gasmask and your’s truly, you’ll find choice pix of Mouse and Fig from Reelsounds, Michael Dahlquist (SKWM), Dean Bernadini (Chevelle), Bitner, Thax, Grant Hart, Cornfed, The Grievers, the many Oucho Bands, The BombBoys (the bookoos) and many many more.

See the entire recording process of Skull Skill, the soon to be released CRB album. Or the many tireless hours recording Louderness, the recently released Bearhawk album. There are also the sepi sessions which include 7 songs and 5 drummers. Other highlights include StPatsParade, CalsFest, the Marklund shows for D’Illustrio (bearhawk) and the Acoustic CRB duo, the professional shots of CRB and the Cronin BBQ show.

An updated mix of SKWM song.

I have been getting the pvx gallery back together. There are tons of photos. It used to have all sorts of comments and descriptions and shit, but for now, I am just restoring the images. And they are in reverse alphabetical order. Maybe I will get all this sorted out and back in order, but I doubt it.

We took a stab at recording the SKWM song last night. Mike got their early to set up the vast array of nice mics that he and AJ own, and also to get our little closet of a ‘control room’ set back up again. (AJ would like to thank the Angry Russian for his endless advice on mic purchases.)

We started off recording the drums and my gtr first and I sang a scratch vocal into a very nice condenser mic (no PA, no monitor).

Things got off to a slow start as Mike and AJ fried a transistor and I fried my Fender Twin. In the meantime, Nate and I worked on the drums in the song and came up with something rather nice - should have a good feel when all is said and done.

Bill stepped up to the plate after that and laid down some very nice add’l gtr. Got a good tone mixing a ribbon mic close and one of the mics on the toms.

Mike finished off the night with some bass direct. I am not sure how it turned out cuz I had to split. Twas getting late. Maybe we will throw up a working version as we finish it up on our very own recording a SKWM song page.

quick notes on previous attempts:

First try: (around 3/7)
Ok, so this is the story of my life; and the story with most of my recordings -
poor/loose planning + lots of luck (good and bad) = interesting results
* Go to record at my recently vacated studio apartment (hopefully new tenant moves in tomorrow)
* Have nice Shure condenser mic, but the cable in my little bag has a 1/4″ end (no phantom power)
* Doesn’t matter cuz, I haven’t installed protools onto my newly reformatted laptop yet.
* Also, no core audio driver, so either way, can’t use MBox for phantom power or any other type of input.
NOTE: just moved, all shit in a pile at new place, currently staying at girlfriend’s place until situations are in place.
* So now I am stuck with the internal mic on my laptop and GarageBand.
* No place to sit (moved out) — sitting on floor.
* No internet connection — don’t know the words by heart, have to sit and type them out, can’t get to SKWM site for lyrics, end up making some of them up.
* Friend there, helps with back up vox and adds thumbed bassline while I do lead on one guitar.
* Only 2 beers
* But neighbor gives us a “Bravo!” from outside the door at the end of the last take.
SO….
It came out interesting, I could re-record it, but often times I stick with the way something came out - for better or for worse. Let’s just say it has personality.

Second try: (around 4/5)
I recorded acoustic/vox up at Reelsounds. I have tried to work on it some on my own. I think my mBox is fucked up. And the tracks I laid down are somewhat subpar - in recording quality. Also, seems a little hurried and lacks the feel you get when you record vox/gtr at the same time, which my version of this song needs badly - that feel.

Hey Kids, I created pages for our other outfits/endeavors/outlets. Go be a friend:

myspace.com/centuryrocketbuilding
myspace.com/bearhawk
myspace.com/reelsounds

There are tunes on all the pages, and the Reelsounds page has music from: Century Rocket Building, Bearhawk, Farm Team, and Cornfed. All three pages are pretty bare so far, but will be expanded upon in the coming days/weeks/months.

Show went well. Twas great really. Mahle (Sybris) did sound again. It turns out, he did sound for a show we (one of my bands) did with System and Station a long time ago at the Prodigal Son when it was being booked by Brian of MPshows.

We swapped out the Silkworm song in the set, Cockfight of Feelings, for a song from the sepi sessions, Heliocentric Model. Dean (now of Chevelle fame) helped me re-arrange the song and it can be quite challenging, so we decided to wait until this second show to trot it out like the racehorse it is. Surprisingly, we did quite well with it.

The other bands were good too, ST Monroe and Archaeology, but System and Station rocked! Those guys were on top of their shit that night. They’ve got a new bass player and drummer, both swell guys, and Ryan and Palmer were both just ripping it up. And Ryan was also playing some keyboards on a fancy little Juno. Dan Fanelli and I were talking about how the new drummer is such a pro. And the bass player was wicked intense, like he was one big vein pulsing, about to pop. The new songs sounded great.

Things are off to a good start for this new outfit with an old name.

The line-up now stands as a solid quintet (five yay’s at head count). Nate is still the man on drums. He is now joined by a spry and sprowley Bill on guitar. And we have fellow spacemates, AJ and Mike, joining in on our side of the fun with keys and bass, respectively. These last two blokes have shared a space with us for many years with barely a knowing of what the others were doing. With a system of leaving rent money in the beer fridge, these two groups of rocknards narely ever crossed paths. So when a bass player was needed, Mike was thought of, which immediately sparked the thought of adding keys via AJ and his assortment of amalgamated sounds.

The fit has been nice. All boys play well together and the sound is tight enough for a hessian hooper (an inside joke between me and myself relating back to a story where I wouldn’t tie my shoes to be on the basketball team).

The first show was a smashing success. Opening up one of the famous Flabby Hoffman Extravaganza’s (filmed for the tele), we enjoyed a good crowd, cheap beers and great sound from our good friend, Eric Mahle at the Subterranean. The set included classics like Double Zero as well as new ones such as Dear Jessica (a Michigan favorite); and the night was capped by an extended jam on The Shore My Lawn with multiple guitar and Rhodes solos.

Our next show is next friday (May12) with our old buddies, System and Station. It will again be at the SubT and we will again be playing first (set the bar high!).

The Building goes onward and upward to the sky like a scraper.

Dan is a manlike machine behind the kit and has been proving a strong asset to the feel and smell of new and old songs alike (i like). Moves are being planned and steps are being taken. The SKuLL SKiLL record is a mere couple weeks away from being pressed, manufactured and shipped to the stoop of pvx records. The booking wheels are in motion as well (we had a great show lined up and then shot down - too bad).

This for sure will be the Century for Building Rockets.